Another American sells out! Do we feel all warm and fuzzy now?

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Southern fried tortillaCouple finds opportunity in influx

Mark and Alice White's restaurant popular with natives and immigrants
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
By CHALLEN STEPHENS
Times Staff Writer challens@htimes.com

ATHENS - The first-time customer bundles out of a crimson minivan, the vehicle bearing both a yellow ribbon and a U.S. flag decal. The man is seeking a taste of home and he asks in Spanish, the only language he knows, if the corn tortillas are hot today.

"Hola, amigo. S, caliente," answers Mark White, the owner of Tortillas Blanco.

White does not speak Spanish.

But little in this life remains unchanged. As the very nature of Athens began to shift in the last decade, as Spanish accents multiplied and at least five Hispanic grocery stores quietly sprouted along the downtown's main street, White adapted.

Today, a sign by the railroad tracks along Elm Street points to 1000 Frazier St., a squat block building that White bought last summer, doubled in size and outfitted with a 2,500-pound feeding oven and cooling belt.

He tacked up a small, inexpensive menu at a walk-up window. Chicken taco, $1.25. Bean burrito, $2. Bag of cinnamon chips, $3. And, most importantly, two pounds of hot corn tortillas for $2.

He said some Hispanic folks were curious, some came to the window and laughed at the peculiar site of a southerner making corn and flour tortillas. But that soon faded. He said the tortillas spoke for themselves.

"We had Hispanic customers May 1," White said, referring to the day that Hispanics were to pull their dollars and labor from the U.S. economy in protest of proposed crackdowns on illegal immigrants. "But there are those who will never come to the tortilla factory because I'm not Hispanic."

White is not political. He's pragmatic. But suddenly he finds himself a bridge between cultures, a gringo making tortillas for Hispanic customers, a native Southerner who these days occasionally sings along at the Spanish church in town.

Seventy-seven. That's how many Hispanics lived in the small city of Athens in 1990, according to the U.S. Census. By 2000, the most recent complete count, that number had grown to around 1,000. And Hispanics accounted for nearly half the population growth during that time span, as Athens expanded from 17,000 to 19,000 people by the Census six years ago.

The pace is the same throughout the whole of Limestone County. In 1990, the federal government counted 261 Hispanics. Ten years later, Limestone County was home to 1,740 Hispanics. Most live in Athens.

But the federal Census counts only the legal residents.

And simply scanning the proliferation of businesses and advertisements in Spanish, it's plain the Hispanic community has continued growing here.

More than a year ago, Mark White began to wonder what he was doing with his life. He said he found himself talking about cancer and death at the kitchen tables of strangers. He had worked as a police officer, had run a warehouse. He was quickly learning he didn't care to sell life insurance.

Thoughts turned to his grandfather, and boyhood mission trips to Mexico and southern Texas. He recalled bits of the language. He recalled friendly dinners. He thought about the food.

Last spring, he struck up a correspondence with a stranger in Oregon, a Hispanic man who ran a tortilla company. White and his wife traveled to the Northwest and studied the technique.

In October, Mark and April White opened Tortillas Blanco in north Athens. They are the only two employees, working six days a week.

"I thought it sounded pretty good," April said, "but I wasn't sure how it would work out. I was kind of nervous. He had had a lot of jobs before."

She said she's not nervous anymore.

They began with flour and corn tortillas. Corn is especially popular with local Hispanic customers. They filled big orders from restaurants and grocery stores. They take custom orders, such as 300 pounds of corn tortillas for a wedding last weekend.

Other customers, the ones who grew up here in Athens, may not think to eat warm tortillas in lieu of biscuits, said White. But he hasn't limited business to recent arrivals from Guatemala and Mexico.

Those same tortillas, sliced and fried, have found a different audience as seasoned chips.

"I need a bag of cheddar and a bag of cinnamon sugar today," said Bob Allen, poking his head through the window Friday. Allen's been making a habit of stopping by most days.

He said his daughter was driving home from Auburn on her way to Nashville and requested a couple bags.

"We've had almost some of everything," said his wife, Joanne Allen. "The most pleasant business people I have met."

There are also whole wheat tortillas for diabetics, and hot burritos and Mexican sodas for lunch.

This spring, the national protests came at a precarious time for White's fledgling enterprise. As the debate rages over illegal immigration, from talk of border fences to guest worker programs, White said he listens carefully.

White, who is also a part-time preacher, said he can't condone illegal activity, including sneaking across the border.

"But that is different because some people don't feel like it's breaking the law," he said. "And maybe that's because the government has turned its eyes for so long."

He said he can't condemn people for trying to earn a better living. Then again, he can't argue with people who demand that all citizens obey federal immigration law.

"That's why we have passports and visas," he said. "Just for the security of our country."

In the end, his is a fine line.

He marries a down-to-earth business philosophy - "People still have to eat and they're here" - with a neighborly, yet practical, concern.

"Their kids will be part of society," White said. "We have to have a positive attitude towards those children. Otherwise they are going to grow up with a negative attitude toward this country."